


Without Him

by Nightfawkes



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Episode Tag, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 19:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6579820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfawkes/pseuds/Nightfawkes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck was on a plane.  Chuck was on a plane, flying to Paris.  Chuck was on a plane, flying to Paris, to carry out a mission.</p>
<p>Without him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Episode tag for S3x05</p>
            </blockquote>





	Without Him

**Author's Note:**

> I have decided to bring all of my old fic under one roof. Instead of torturing myself with all the of the things I would likely now feel I could have done better, I have decided not to clean these stories up, and am posting them as-is. If you see anything wrong/problematic, or if I missed any tags, please let me know.

 

Chuck was on a plane. Chuck was on a plane, flying to Paris. Chuck was on a plane, flying to Paris, to carry out a mission.

Without him.

Casey stalked through the Buy More, scattering green-shirts and nerds before him like leaves scattered before a gale. Casey was not a man prone to fits of anxiety, but he thought that maybe in this instance, he’d make an exception. Plane. Paris. Mission. _Without_ him.

There were so very many things that could go wrong. Chuck on his own – well it wasn’t necessarily a recipe for disaster, but it was a pretty good bet. It didn’t take an elaborate scenario, either - just start with the obvious. Chuck was going to Paris. Chuck did not speak French. Sure, the Intersect probably had it, but that was really no guarantee, now was it? What if Chuck got nervous, didn’t flash, and ended up on the wrong side of the city from his hotel? And what if it was raining? Or there was a pack of wild dogs on the loose? Casey wouldn’t be there.

Or what if Chuck made it to his hotel, but then a Ring operative was waiting for him in his room? Or what if it was a sultry vixen-type operative? Waiting at the bar? And tried to seduce him? Chuck was not always at his best when saying no to beautiful women, and in desperation he might try to look to the bartender for guidance. Casey wouldn’t be there.

Or what if he didn’t even try to say no? What if he got all caught up in the glamour and seduction of being a spy? What if the Ring operative was a Jill-doppelganger and asked him to run away with her and Chuck disappeared forever? Chuck would need someone to beat his ass to get his head back on straight. And Casey wouldn’t be there.

Casey threw a glance at his watch, and clenched his jaw. It had been nearly three hours since Chuck’s flight had taken off. On its way to Paris, and the mission. Without him.

Casey ducked into the back hallway, fishing his phone from his pocket as he headed for the break room. This place was like the unofficial Buy More epicenter. Small things with big consequences tended to happen in this off-kilter, meant-to-be-welcoming-but-mostly-just-creepy room. Walker’s cell was already ringing as he ducked inside.

“Yeah?” Hmmm. Sarah was being curt. Bet pretty-boy Shaw was nearby.

“Any update on Chuck?” Casey kinda hated himself for asking, but… Three hours! Without him! Casey made a conscious effort to loosen his grip. He’d already cracked two cell phones that way. It seemed an odd expenditure peeve to have, but Beckman never seemed too thrilled to replace them.

“Relax, Casey,” Sarah’s voice was slightly stilted, and Casey revised his earlier opinion to Shaw definitely being close at hand. “He’s doing fine.” Fine? Doing fine? What does that even mean, doing fine? Chuck had a rather considerable issue with heights. What if being in a plane made him too afraid, and he lost control, and someone jostled him, and Chuck flashed, and hurt somebody before he could prevent it, and there was an air marshal on board, and they locked him up, and maybe threw him in the cargo bay where it was so cold, and maybe the dogs were on the plane… And Casey wouldn’t be there!

Behind him, the break room door opened.

Casey spun around, lowering his phone from his ear as he contemplated cracking a skull for the intrusion.

“Hey… John,” the hesitant voice of Morgan Grimes. The other Number One Man in Chuck’s life. Hmm. “Uh, do you have a second? I need a favor.”

A favor? He had to be kidding. Casey seriously had other things to be concerned about right now. Like, oh just for instance: Chuck, plane, Paris, mission… sans Casey. “Not interested,” he said. He knew all about the power struggle currently going on in the Buy More. Honestly, it amused him to no end. Didn’t mean he was going to stop worrying about Chuck to worry about the bearded wonder.

But then the little imp began to make a rather desperate, yet somewhat eloquent plea. And Casey got to thinking. Sure, he had no deep and abiding love for Grimes… but the tiny one _was_ Chuck’s best friend. Chuck, who was on a plane. Flying to Paris to do a mission. Without him. Right.

So maybe even if he couldn’t actually be with Chuck, he could still care for him by proxy. Maybe save the life and sanity of Chuck’s little bestest buddy. Couldn’t hurt to keep a foot in the door, there. And it was becoming glaringly obvious to Casey that he needed a distraction. Badly. Grimes just might hold the answer.

“Insurgents…”he growled. “I hate insurgents.”

“Then this’ll work out, I think”.

What the hell, Casey figured. That crew of panty-waist idiots badly needed a good terrorizing anyway, and Colonel John Casey had more than a few tricks up his sleeves in that regard. Besides… this would probably be a lot of fun.

But as he followed Grimes to the storage cage to brain-storm, one thing was absolutely certain in Casey’s mind. Chuck was never, _ever,_ going out on a mission again.

Without him, that is.

 

 


End file.
